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USS Ticonderoga (CV 14 / CVA 14 / CVS 14):
USS Ticonderoga (CV/CVA/CVS-14) was one of 24
Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States
Navy. The ship was the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named
after the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in the American Revolutionary War.
Ticonderoga was commissioned in May 1944, and served in several campaigns in
the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning five battle stars. Decommissioned
shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in
the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an
antisubmarine carrier (CVS). She was recommissioned too late to participate
in the Korean War, but was very active in the Vietnam War, earning three Navy
Unit Commendations, one Meritorious Unit Commendation, and 12 battle stars.
Ticonderoga differed somewhat from the earlier Essex-class ships in that she
was 16 ft (4.9 m) longer to accommodate bow-mounted anti-aircraft guns. Most
subsequent Essex-class carriers were completed to this "long-hull"
design and according to Phillip St. John Ph.D. they were referred to as the
Ticonderoga class. At the end of her career, after a number of modifications,
she was said to be in the Hancock class according to the Naval vessel
register.
Ticonderoga was decommissioned in 1973 and sold for scrap in 1975.
History:
The ship was laid down as Hancock on 1 February 1943 at Newport News,
Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., renamed
Ticonderoga on 1 May 1943, and launched on 7 February 1944, sponsored by Miss
Stephanie Sarah Pell. She was commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 8 May
1944, Captain Dixie Kiefer in command.
Ticonderoga remained at Norfolk for almost two months outfitting and
embarking Air Group 80. On 26 June, the carrier shaped a course for the
British West Indies. She conducted air operations and drills en route and
reached Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the 30th. For the next 15 days,
Ticonderoga trained intensively to weld her air group and crew into an
efficient wartime team. She departed the West Indies on 16 July and headed
back to Norfolk where she arrived on the 22nd for post-shakedown repairs and
alterations. On 30 August, the carrier headed for Panama. She transited the
Panama Canal on 4 September and steamed up the coast to Naval Base San Diego
the following day. On the 13th, the carrier moored at San Diego where she
loaded provisions, fuel, aviation gas, and an additional 77 planes, as well
as the Marine Corps aviation and defense units that went with them. On the
19th, she steamed for Hawaii where she arrived five days later.
Ticonderoga remained at Pearl Harbor for almost a month. She and Carina
conducted experiments in the underway transfer of aviation bombs from cargo
ship to aircraft carrier. Following those tests, she conducted air operations
day and night landing and antiaircraft defense drills until 18 October,
when she exited Pearl Harbor and headed for the western Pacific. After a
brief stop at Eniwetok, Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi in the Western Caroline
Islands on the 29th. There she embarked Rear Admiral Arthur W. Radford,
Commander, Carrier Division 6, and joined Task Force 38 (TF 38) as a unit of
Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Group 38.3 (TG 38.3).
World War II
Philippine campaign
The carrier sortied from Ulithi with TF 38 on 2 November 1944. She joined the
other carriers as they resumed their extended air cover for the ground forces
supporting the Battle of Leyte. She launched her first air strike on the
morning of the 5th. The planes of her air group spent the next two days
pummeling enemy shipping near Luzon and air installations on that island. Her
planes bombed and strafed the airfields at Zablan, Mandaluyong, and Pasig.
They also joined those of other carriers in sinking the heavy cruiser Nachi.
In addition, Ticonderoga pilots claimed six Japanese aircraft shot down and
one destroyed on the ground, as well as 23 others damaged.
Around 16:00 on the 5th, the enemy retaliated by sending up a flock of
kamikaze planes. Two of the suicide planes succeeded in slipping through the
American combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire to crash into Lexington.
Ticonderoga emerged from that airborne banzai charge unscathed and claimed a
tally of two splashes. On 6 November, the warship launched two fighter sweeps
and two bombing strikes against the Luzon airfields and enemy shipping in the
vicinity. Her airmen returned later that day claiming the destruction of 35
Japanese aircraft and attacks on six enemy ships in Manila Bay. After
recovering her planes, the carrier retired to the east for a fueling
rendezvous.
She refueled and received replacement planes on the 7th and then headed back
to continue pounding enemy forces in the Philippines. Early on the morning of
11 November, her planes combined with others of TF 38 to attack a Japanese
reinforcement convoy, just as it was preparing to enter Ormoc Bay from the
Camotes Sea. Together, the planes accounted for all the enemy transports and
four of the seven escorting destroyers. On the 12th-13th, Ticonderoga and her
sisters launched strikes at Luzon airfields and docks and shipping around
Manila. This raid tallied an impressive score: light cruiser Kiso, four
destroyers, and seven merchant ships. At the conclusion of the raid, TF 38
retired eastward for a refueling breather. Ticonderoga and the rest of TG
38.3, however, continued east to Ulithi where they arrived on the 17th to replenish,
refuel, and rearm.
On 22 November, the aircraft carrier departed Ulithi once more and steamed
back toward the Philippines. Three days later, she launched air strikes on
central Luzon and adjacent waters. Her pilots finished off the heavy cruiser Kumano,
damaged in the Battle off Samar. Later, they attacked an enemy convoy about
15 miles (24 km) southwest of Kumano in Dasol Bay. Of this convoy, Ning Hai
class cruiser Yasoshima, a merchantman, and three landing ships went to the
bottom. Ticonderoga 's air group rounded out their day of
destruction with an aerial rampage which cost the Japanese 15 planes shot
down and 11 destroyed on the ground.
While her air group busily pounded the Japanese, Ticonderoga 's
company also made their presence felt. Just after noon, a torpedo launched by
an enemy plane broached in the wake of Langley, announcing the approach of an
air raid. Ticonderoga 's gunners raced to their battle
stations as the raiders made both conventional and suicide attacks on the
task group. Her sister ship Essex (CV-9) erupted in flames when one of the
kamikazes crashed into her. When a second suicide plane tried to finish off
the stricken carrier, Ticonderoga 's gunners joined those
firing from other ships in cutting his approach abruptly short. That
afternoon, while damage control parties dressed Essex 's
wounds, Ticonderoga recovered the damaged carrier's homeless airmen as well
as to Intrepid pilots in similar straits. The following day, TF 38 retired to
the east.
TF 38 stood out of Ulithi again on 11 December and headed for the
Philippines. Ticonderoga arrived at the launch point early in the afternoon
of the 13th and sent her planes aloft to blanket Japanese airbases on Luzon
while Army planes attacked those in the central Philippines. For three days,
Ticonderoga airmen and their comrades wreaked havoc with a storm of
destruction on enemy airfields. She withdrew on the 16th with the rest of TF
38 in search of a fueling rendezvous. While attempting to find calmer waters
in which to refuel, TF 38 steamed directly through a violent, but unheralded,
typhoon. Though the storm cost Admiral William Halsey's force three
destroyers and over 800 lives, Ticonderoga and the other carriers managed to
ride it out with a minimum of damage. Having survived the battle, Ticonderoga
returned to Ulithi on 24 December, Christmas Eve.
Repairs occasioned by the typhoon kept TF 38 in the anchorage almost until
the end of the month. The carriers did not return to sea until 30 December
1944 when they steamed north to hit Formosa and Luzon in preparation for the
landings on the latter island at Lingayen Gulf. Severe weather limited the
Formosa strikes on 34 January 1945 and, in all likelihood, obviated the need
for them. The warships fueled at sea on the 5th. Despite rough weather on the
6th, the strikes on Luzon airfields were carried out. That day, Ticonderoga 's
airmen and their colleagues of the other air groups increased their score by
another 32 enemy planes. The 7th brought more strikes on Luzon installations.
After a fueling rendezvous on the 8th, Ticonderoga sped north at night to get
into position to blanket Japanese airfields in the Ryūkyūs during
the Lingayen assault the following morning. However, foul weather, the
bugaboo of TF 38 during the winter of 1944 and 1945, forced TG 38.3 to
abandon the strikes on the Ryūkyū airfields and join TG 38.2 in
pounding Formosa.
South China Sea combat
During the night of 910 January, TF 38 steamed boldly through the Luzon
Strait and then headed generally southwest, diagonally across the South China
Sea. Ticonderoga provided combat air patrol coverage on the 11th and helped
to bring down four enemy planes which attempted to snoop the formation.
Otherwise, the carriers and their consorts proceeded unmolested to a point
some 150 to 200 mi (240 to 320 km) off the coast of Indochina. There, on the
12th, they launched their approximately 850 planes and made a series of
anti-shipping sweeps during which they sank an incredible 44 ships, totaling
over 300,000 long tons (300,000 t).
After recovering planes in the late afternoon, the carriers moved off to the
northeast. Heavy weather hindered fueling operations on the 13th14th, and
air searches failed to turn up any tempting targets. On the 15th, fighters
swept Japanese airfields on the Chinese coast while the flattops headed for a
position from which to strike Hong Kong. The following morning, they launched
anti-shipping bombing raids and fighter sweeps of air installations. Weather
prevented air operations on the 17th and again made fueling difficult. It
worsened the next day and stopped replenishment operations altogether, so
that they were not finally concluded until the 19th. The force then shaped a
course generally northward to retransit Luzon Strait via Balintang Channel.
Attacks on South Japanese islands
The three task groups of TF 38 completed their transit during the night of
2021 January. The next morning, aided by favorable flight conditions, their
planes hit airfields on Formosa, in the Pescadores, and at Sakishima Gunto.
While it allowed American flight operations to continue through the day, it
also allowed for Japanese kamikaze operations.
Just after noon, a single-engine Japanese plane scored a hit on Langley with
a glide-bombing attack. Seconds later, a kamikaze swooped out of the clouds
and plunged toward Ticonderoga. He crashed through her flight deck abreast of
the No. 2 5 in (130 mm) mount, and his bomb exploded just above her hangar
deck. Several planes stowed nearby erupted into flames. Death and destruction
abounded, but the ship's company fought valiantly to save the threatened
carrier. Captain Kiefer conned his ship smartly. First, he changed course to
keep the wind from fanning the blaze. Then, he ordered magazines and other
compartments flooded to prevent further explosions and to correct a 10°
starboard list. Finally, he instructed the damage control party to continue
flooding compartments on Ticonderoga 's port side. That
operation induced a 10° port list which neatly dumped the fire overboard.
Firefighters and plane handlers completed the job by dousing the flames and
jettisoning burning aircraft.
The other kamikaze then pounced on the carrier. Her antiaircraft gunners
struck back with ferocity and quickly shot three down into the sea. A fourth
plane slipped through her barrage and smashed into the carrier's starboard
side near the island. His bomb set more planes on fire, riddled her flight
deck, and injured or killed another 100 sailors, with Captain Kiefer one of
the wounded. Yet Ticonderoga 's crew refused to submit.
Spared further attacks, they brought her fires completely under control not
long after 1400; and Ticonderoga retired.
Repair and relaunch
The stricken carrier arrived at Ulithi on 24 January but remained there only
long enough to move her wounded to hospital ship Samaritan, to transfer her
air group to Hancock, and to embark passengers bound for home. Ticonderoga
cleared the lagoon on 28 January and headed for the U.S. The warship stopped
briefly at Pearl Harbor en route to the Puget Sound Navy Yard where she
arrived on 15 February. Captain William Sinton assumed command in February
1945.
Her repairs were completed on 20 April, and she cleared Puget Sound the
following day for the Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda, California. After
embarking passengers and aircraft bound for Hawaii, the carrier headed for
Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 1 May. The next day, Air Group 87 came on
board and, for the next week, trained in preparation for the carrier's return
to combat. Ticonderoga stood out of Pearl Harbor and shaped a course for the
western Pacific. En route to Ulithi, she launched her planes for what
amounted to training strikes on Japanese-held Taroa in the Marshalls. On 22
May, the warship arrived in Ulithi and rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Force
as an element of Rear Admiral Radford's TG 58.4.
Preparing for the Japan campaign
Two days after her arrival, Ticonderoga sortied from Ulithi with TF 58 and
headed north to spend the last weeks of the war in Japanese home waters.
Three days out, Admiral Halsey relieved Admiral Raymond Spruance, the 5th
Fleet reverted to 3rd Fleet, and TF 58 became TF 38 again for the duration.
On 23 June, Ticonderoga fighters struck at airfields on Kyūshū in
an effort to neutralize the remnants of Japanese air power particularly the
kamikaze and to relieve the pressure on American forces at Okinawa. During
the following two days, Ticonderoga rode out her second typhoon in less than
six months and emerged relatively unscathed. She provided combat air patrol
cover for 6 June refueling rendezvous, and four of her fighters intercepted
and destroyed three Okinawa-bound kamikazes. That evening, she steamed off at
high speed with TG 38.4 to conduct a fighter sweep of airfields on southern Kyūshū
on the 8th. Ticonderoga 's planes then joined in the
aerial bombardment of Minami Daito and Kita Daito islands before the carrier
headed for Leyte where she arrived on the 13th.
During the two-week rest and replenishment period she enjoyed at Leyte,
Ticonderoga changed task organizations from TG 38.4 to Rear Admiral Gerald F.
Bogan's TG 38.3. On 1 July, under the flag of Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague,
she departed Leyte with TF 38 and headed north to resume raids on Japan. Two
days later, a damaged reduction gear forced her into Apra Harbor, Guam, for
repairs. She remained there until the 19th when she steamed off to rejoin TF
38. On the 24th, her planes joined those of other fast carriers in striking
ships in the Inland Sea and airfields at Nagoya, Osaka, and Miko.
During those raids, TF 38 planes found the sad remnants of the once-mighty
Japanese Fleet and bagged battleships Ise, Hyūga, and Haruna as well as
an escort carrier, Kaiyo, and two heavy cruisers. On 28 July, her aircraft
directed their efforts toward the Kure Naval Base, where they pounded an
aircraft carrier, three cruisers, a destroyer, and a submarine. She shifted
her attention to the industrial area of central Honshū on the 30th, then
to northern Honshū and Hokkaidō on 910 August. The latter attacks
thoroughly destroyed the marshaling area for a planned airborne suicide raid
on the B-29 bases in the Marianas. On the 13th and 14th, her planes returned
to the Tokyo area and helped to subject the Japanese capital to another
severe drubbing.
On the morning of 16 August, Ticonderoga launched another strike against
Tokyo. During or just after that attack, word reached TF 38 to the effect
that Japan had capitulated.
The shock of peace, though not so abrupt as that of war almost four years previously,
took some getting used to. Ticonderoga and her sister ships remained on a
full war footing. She continued patrols over Japanese territory and sent
reconnaissance flights in search of camps containing Allied prisoners of war
so that air-dropped supplies could be rushed to them. On 6 September four
days after the formal surrender ceremony aboard Missouri Ticonderoga
entered Tokyo Bay.
Post-war
Her arrival at Tokyo ended one phase of her career and began another. She
embarked homeward-bound passengers and put to sea again on the 20th. After a
stop in Pearl Harbor, the carrier reached Alameda, on 5 October. She
disembarked her passengers and unloaded cargo before heading out on the 9th
to pick up another group of veterans. Ticonderoga delivered over a thousand
soldiers and sailors to Tacoma, Washington, and remained there through the
28th for the Navy Day celebration. On 29 October, the carrier departed Tacoma
and headed back to Alameda. En route, all of the planes of Air Group 87 were
transferred ashore so that the carrier could be altered to accommodate
additional passengers in the Operation Magic Carpet voyages to follow.
Following the completion of those modifications at the Pearl Harbor Naval
Shipyard in November, she headed for the Philippines and arrived at Samar on
20 November. She returned to Alameda on 6 December and debarked almost 4,000
returning servicemen. The carrier made one more Magic Carpet run in December
1945 and January 1946 before entering the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to prepare
for inactivation. Almost a year later on 9 January 1947, Ticonderoga was
placed out of commission and berthed with the Bremerton Group of the Pacific
Reserve Fleet.
Redeployment in the Pacific
On 31 January 1952, Ticonderoga came out of reserve and went into reduced
commission for the transit from Bremerton to New York. She departed Puget
Sound on 27 February and reached New York on 1 April. Three days later, she
was decommissioned at the New York Naval Shipyard to begin the extensive
SCB-27C conversion. During the ensuing 29 months, the carrier received
numerous modifications steam catapults to launch jets, a new nylon
barricade, a new deck-edge elevator and the latest electronic and fire
control equipment necessary for her to become an integral unit of the
fleet. On 11 September 1954, Ticonderoga was recommissioned at New York,
Captain William A. Schoech in command.
In January 1955, the carrier shifted to her new home port Naval Station
Norfolk, Norfolk, Virginia where she arrived on the 6th. Over the next
month, she conducted carrier qualifications with Air Group 6 in the Virginia
Capes operating area. On 3 February, she stood out of Hampton Roads for
shakedown near Cuba, after which she returned via Norfolk to New York for
additional alterations. During the late summer, the warship resumed carrier
qualifications in the Virginia Capes area.
She visited Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend to participate in the
International Air Show. To demonstrate the power of her new steam catapults,
on three consecutive days she launched North American AJ1 Savages while
standing at anchor in the Delaware River. The Ticonderoga next participated
in tests of four new planes the A4D-1 Skyhawk, F4D-1 Skyray, F7U Cutlass,
and F3H-2N Demon. Ticonderoga then returned to normal operations along the
East Coast until 4 November when she departed Naval Station Mayport, Florida,
and headed for Europe. She relieved Intrepid at Gibraltar 10 days later and
cruised the length of the Mediterranean during the following eight months. On
2 August 1956, Ticonderoga returned to Norfolk and entered the shipyard to
receive an angled flight deck and an enclosed hurricane bow as part of the
SCB-125 program.
Those modifications were completed by early 1957, and in April she got underway
for her new home port Alameda, Calif. She reached her destination on 30
May, underwent repairs, and finished out the summer with operations off the
California coast. On 16 September, she stood out of San Francisco Bay and
shaped course for the Far East. En route, she stopped at Pearl Harbor before
continuing west to Yokosuka Japan, where she arrived on 15 October. For six
months, Ticonderoga cruised Oriental waters from Japan in the north to the
Philippines in the south. Upon arriving at Alameda on 25 April 1958, she
completed her first deployment to the western Pacific since recommissioning.
Vietnam
Pre-conflict operations
From 19581963, Ticonderoga made four more peacetime deployments to the
western Pacific. During each, she conducted training operations with other
units of the 7th Fleet and made goodwill and liberty port calls throughout
the Far East. Early in 1964, she began preparations for her sixth cruise to
the western Pacific and, following exercises off the west coast and in the
Hawaiian Islands, the carrier cleared Pearl Harbor on 4 May for what began as
another peaceful tour of duty in the Far East. The first three months of that
deployment brought normal operations-training and port calls.
Initial actions
On 2 August, while operating in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin,
Maddox reported being attacked by units of the (North) Vietnam People's Navy.
Within minutes of her receipt of the message, Ticonderoga dispatched four,
rocket-armed F8E Crusaders to the destroyer's assistance. Upon arrival, the
Crusaders launched Zuni rockets and strafed the North Vietnamese craft with
their 20 mm cannons. After the efforts of Ticonderoga and Maddox, one boat
was left dead in the water and the other two damaged.
Two days later, late in the evening of the 4th, Ticonderoga received urgent
requests from Turner Joy - by then on patrol with Maddox - for air support in
resisting what the destroyer alleged to be another torpedo boat foray. The
carrier again launched planes to aid the American surface ships, and Turner
Joy directed them. The Navy surface and air team believed it had sunk two
boats and damaged another pair.
President Lyndon Johnson responded with a reprisal to what he felt at the
time to be two unprovoked attacks on American seapower and ordered
retaliatory air strikes on selected North Vietnamese motor torpedo boat
bases. On 5 August, Ticonderoga and Constellation launched 60 sorties against
four bases and their supporting oil storage facilities. The USN attacks
reportedly resulted in the destruction of 25 PT-type boats, severe damage to
the bases, and almost complete razing of the oil storage depot. For her quick
reaction and successful combat actions on those three occasions, Ticonderoga
received the Navy Unit Commendation.
Stand-down
After a return visit to Japan in September, the aircraft carrier resumed
normal operations in the South China Sea until winding up the deployment late
in the year. She returned to the Naval Air Station North Island, California,
on 15 December 1964. Following post-deployment and holiday stand-down,
Ticonderoga moved to the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard on 27 January 1965 to
begin a five-month overhaul. She completed repairs in June and spent the
summer operating along the coast of southern California. On 28 September, the
aircraft carrier put to sea for another deployment to the Orient. She spent
some time in the Hawaiian Islands for an operational readiness exercise then
continued on to the Far East. She reached "Dixie Station" on 5 November
and immediately began combat air operations.
196566 deployment
Ticonderoga 's winter deployment of 1965 and 1966 was her
first total combat tour of duty during American involvement in the Vietnam
War. During her six months in the Far East, the carrier spent a total of 116
days in air operations off the coast of Vietnam dividing her time almost
evenly between "Dixie" and "Yankee Stations", the carrier
operating areas off South and North Vietnam, respectively. Her air group
delivered over 8,000 short tons (7,300 t) of ordnance in more than 10,000
combat sorties, with a loss of 16 planes, but only five pilots. For the most
part, her aircraft hit enemy installations in North Vietnam and interdicted
supply routes into South Vietnam, including river-borne and coastwise junk
and sampan traffic as well as roads, bridges, and trucks on land.
Specifically, they claimed the destruction of 35 bridges as well as numerous
warehouses, barracks, trucks, boats, and railroad cars and severe damage to a
major North Vietnamese thermal power plant located at Uong Bi north of
Haiphong. After a stop at United States Fleet Activities Sasebo, Sasebo,
Japan, from 25 April-3 May 1966, the warship put to sea to return to the
United States. On 13 May, she pulled into port at San Diego to end the
deployment.
On 5 December 1965, a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was lost overboard while the
aircraft carrier was 80 miles (130 km) from one of the Ryukyu Islands,
Okinawa. The aircraft was being rolled from a hangar bay onto an elevator.
The aircraft had mounted on it a B43 nuclear bomb. The pilot, Lieutenant JG
Douglas Webster, the A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 151022, of Attack Squadron VA-56
Champions, and the nuclear weapon were all lost. No public mention was made
of the incident at the time and it would not come to light until a 1981
United States Department of Defense report revealed that a one-megaton bomb
had been lost. Japan then asked for details of the incident.
196667, 196768 deployments
Following repairs she stood out of San Diego on 9 July to begin a normal
round of West Coast training operations. Those and similar evolutions
continued until 15 October, when Ticonderoga departed San Diego, bound via
Hawaii for the western Pacific. The carrier reached Yokosuka, Japan, on 30
October and remained there until 5 November when she headed south for an
overnight stop at U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, Subic Bay in the Philippines on
the 10th and 11th. On the 13th, Ticonderoga arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin and
began the first of three combat tours during her 19661967 deployment. She
launched 11,650 combat sorties, all against enemy targets located in North
Vietnam. Again, her primary targets were logistics and communications lines
and transportation facilities. For her contribution and that of Air Wing
Nineteen to Operation Rolling Thunder, Ticonderoga was awarded her second
Navy Unit Commendation.
She completed her final line period on 27 April 1967 and returned to
Yokosuka, from which she departed again on 19 May to return to the United
States. Ten days later, the carrier entered San Diego and began a month-long,
post-deployment stand-down. At the beginning of July, she shifted to
Bremerton, Washington, where she entered the Puget Sound for two months of
repairs. Upon the completion of yard work, she departed Bremerton on 6
September and steamed south to training operations off the coast of southern
California.
On 28 December 1967, Ticonderoga sailed for her fourth combat deployment to
the waters off the Indochinese coast and arrived on Yankee Station in January
1968. Ticonderoga was on Yankee Station for the beginning of the 1968 Tet
Offensive. Nearly coincidental with the Tet Offensive, the siege of Khe Sanh
began and Pueblo was seized by the North Koreans and taken to Wonsan harbor.
Ranger was immediately deployed to the coast of North Korea. Approximately a
week later, Ranger was relieved off Korea by Ticonderoga and returned to
Yankee Station. Enterprise joined Ticonderoga and strikes were planned
against seven MIG fields with approximately 200 MiGS. These strikes were
never executed and Ticonderoga returned to Yankee Station to resume her role
in the Tet Offensive. Between January 1968 and July 1968, Ticonderoga was on
the line off the coast of Vietnam for five separate periods totaling 120 days
of combat duty. During that time, her air wing flew just over 13,000 combat
sorties against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, most frequently in the
continuing attempts to interdict the enemy lines of supply. Between line
periods, she regularly returned to Subic Bay and Naval Air Station Cubi Point
for rest and replenishment. She also made port visits at Singapore and Hong
Kong. On 9 July, during her fifth line period, LCDR John B. Nichols claimed
Ticonderoga 's first MiG kill. The carrier completed that
line period and entered Subic Bay for upkeep on 25 July. Ticonderoga then
proceeded for her homeport in NAS North Island, Coronado, CA arriving on 17
August 1968 after one days delay in the fog off San Diego in the San Clemente
Channel. Shortly thereafter, Ticonderoga moved to the Long Beach Naval
Shipyard for repairs and certain conversions to handle the A-7 Corsair attack
jet and to prepare for her fifth combat cruise in February 1969.
Final deployments
During the first month of 1969, Ticonderoga made preparations for her fifth
consecutive combat deployment to the Southeast Asia area. On 1 February, she
cleared San Diego and headed west. After a brief stop at Pearl Harbor a week
later, she continued her voyage to Yokosuka where she arrived on the 20th.
The carrier departed Yokosuka on the 28th for the coast of Vietnam where she
arrived on 4 March. Over the next four months, Ticonderoga served four
periods on the line off Vietnam, interdicting communist supply lines and
making strikes against their positions.
During her second line period, however, her tour of duty off Vietnam came to
an abrupt end on 16 April when she was shifted north to the Sea of Japan.
North Korean aircraft had shot down a Navy reconnaissance plane in the area,
and Ticonderoga was called upon to beef up the forces assigned to the
vicinity. However, the crisis abated, and Ticonderoga entered Subic Bay on 27
April for upkeep. On 8 May, she departed the Philippines to return to
"Yankee Station" and resumed interdiction operations. Between her
third and fourth line periods, the carrier visited Sasebo and Hong Kong.
The aircraft carrier took station off Vietnam for her last line period of the
deployment on 26 June and there followed 37 more days of highly successful
air sorties against enemy targets. Following that tour, she joined TF 71 in
the Sea of Japan for the remainder of the deployment. Ticonderoga concluded
the deployment - a highly successful one, for she received her third Navy
Unit Commendation for her operations during that tour of duty - when she left
Subic Bay on 4 September.
Post-Vietnam service
Ticonderoga arrived in San Diego on 18 September. After almost a month of
post-deployment stand-down, she moved to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in
mid-October to begin conversion to an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft
carrier. Overhaul and conversion work began on 20 October, and Ticonderoga
was redesignated CVS-14 on the 21st. She completed overhaul and conversion on
28 May 1970 and conducted exercises out of Long Beach for most of June. On
the 26th, the new ASW support carrier entered her new home port, San Diego.
In JulyAugust, she conducted refresher training, refresher air operations,
and carrier landing qualifications. She operated off the California coast for
the remainder of the year and participated in two exercises-HUKASWEX 470
late in October and COMPUTEX 2370 between 30 November and 3 December.
During the remainder of her active career, Ticonderoga made two more
deployments to the Far East. Because of her change in mission, neither tour
of duty included combat operations off Vietnam. Both, however, included
training exercises in the Sea of Japan with ships of the Japanese Maritime
Self Defense Force. The first of these two cruises also brought operations in
the Indian Ocean with units of the Thai Navy and a transit of Sunda Strait
during which a ceremony was held to commemorate the loss of Houston and HMAS
Perth in 1942.
In between these two last deployments, she operated in the eastern Pacific
and participated in the recovery of the Apollo 16 moon mission capsule and
astronauts near American Samoa during April 1972. The second deployment came
in the summer of 1972, and, in addition to the training exercises in the Sea
of Japan, Ticonderoga also joined ASW training operations in the South China
Sea. That fall, she returned to the eastern Pacific and, in November
practiced for the recovery of Apollo 17. The next month, Ticonderoga
recovered her second set of space voyagers near American Samoa. The carrier
then headed back to San Diego where she arrived on 28 December. On 22 June
1973, Ticonderoga recovered the Skylab 2 astronauts near San Diego.
Ticonderoga remained active for nine more months, first operating out of San
Diego and then making preparations for inactivation. On 1 September 1973, the
aircraft carrier was decommissioned after a board of inspection and survey
found her to be unfit for further naval service. Her name was struck from the
Navy list on 16 November 1973, and arrangements were begun to sell her for
scrap. She was sold for scrap 1 September 1975.
source: wikipedia
- - -
another history:
The fourth Ticonderoga (CV-14) was laid down
as Hancock on 1 February 1943 at Newport News , Va. , by the Newport News
Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; renamed Ticonderoga on 1 May 1943; launched
on 7 February 1944; sponsored by Miss Stephanie Sarah Pell; and commissioned
at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 8 May 1944, Capt. Dixie Kiefer in command.
Ticonderoga remained at Norfolk for almost two months outfitting and
embarking Air Group 80. On 26 June, the carrier shaped a course for the
British West Indies . She conducted air operations and drills en route and
reached Port of Spain , Trinidad , on the 30th. For the next 15 days,
Ticonderoga trained intensively to weld her air group and crew into an
efficient wartime team. She departed the West Indies on 16 July and headed
back to Norfolk where she arrived on the 22d for post-shakedown repairs and
alterations. On 30 August, the carrier headed for Panama. She transited the
canal on 4 September and steamed up the coast to San Diego the following day.
On the 13th, the carrier moored at San Diego where she loaded provisions,
fuel, aviation gas, and an additional 77 planes, as well as the Marine Corps
aviation and defense units that went with them. On the 19th, she sailed for
Hawaii where she arrived five days later.
Ticonderoga remained at Pearl Harbor for almost a month. She and Carina
(AK-74) conducted experiments in the underway transfer of aviation bombs from
cargo ship to aircraft carrier. Following those tests, she conducted air
operations-day and night landing and antiaircraft defense drills-until 18
October when she exited Pearl Harbor and headed for the western Pacific.
After a brief stop at Eniwetok, Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi Atoll in the
Western Carolines on the 29th. There she embarked Rear Admiral A. W. Radford,
Commander, Carrier Division 6, and joined Task Force (TF) 38 as a unit of
Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Group (TG) 38.3.
The carrier sortied from Ulithi with TF 38 on 2 November. She joined the
other carriers as they resumed their extended air cover for the ground forces
capturing Leyte . She launched her first air strike on the morning of the
5th. The planes of her air group spent the next two days pummeling enemy
shipping near Luzon and air installations on that island. Her planes bombed
and strafed the airfields at Zablan, Mandaluyong, and Pasig . They also
joined those of other carriers in sending the heavy cruiser Nachi to a watery
resting place. In addition, Ticonderoga pilots claimed six Japanese aircraft
shot down and one destroyed on the ground, as well as 23 others damaged.
Around 1600 on the 5th, the enemy retaliated by sending up a flock of planes
piloted by members of the suicide corps dubbed kamikaze, or "Divine
Wind," in honor of the typhoon that had destroyed a Chinese invasion
fleet four centuries previously. Two of the suicide planes succeeded in
slipping through the American combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire to crash
Lexington (CV-16). Ticonderoga emerged from that airborne banzai charge
unscathed and claimed a tally of two splashes. On 6 November, the warship
launched two fighter sweeps and two bombing strikes against the Luzon
airfields and enemy shipping in the vicinity. Her airmen returned later that
day claiming the destruction of 35 Japanese aircraft and attacks on six enemy
ships in Manila Bay . After recovering her planes, the carrier retired to the
east for a fueling rendezvous.
She refueled and received replacement planes on the 7th and then headed back
to continue pounding enemy forces in the Philippines . Early on the morning
of 11 November, her planes combined with others of TF 38 to attack a Japanese
reinforcement convoy, just as it was preparing to enter Ormoc Bay from the
Camotes Sea . Together, the planes accounted for all the enemy transports and
four of the seven escorting destroyers. On the 12th and 13th, Ticonderoga and
her sisters launched strikes at Luzon airfields and docks and shipping around
Manila . This raid tallied an impressive score: light cruiser Kiso, four
destroyers, and seven merchant ships. At the conclusion of the raid, TF 38
retired eastward for a refueling breather. Ti conderoga and the rest of TG
38.3, however, continued east to Ulithi where they arrived on the 17th to
replenish, refuel, and rearm.
On 22 November, the aircraft carrier departed Ulithi once more and steamed
back toward the Philippines . Three days later, she launched air strikes on
central Luzon and adjacent waters. Her pilots finished off the heavy cruiser
Kumano, damaged in the Battle off Samar . Later, they attacked an enemy
convoy about 15 miles southwest of Kumano's not-so-safe haven in Dasol Bay .
Of this convoy, cruiser Yasoshima, a merchantman, and three landing ships
went to the bottom. Ticonderoga 's air group rounded out their day of
destruction with an aerial rampage which cost the Japanese 15 planes shot
down and 11 destroyed on the ground.
While her air group busily pounded the Japanese, Ticonderoga 's ship's
company also made their presence felt. Just after noon, a torpedo launched by
an enemy plane broached in Langley 's (CVL-27) wake to announce the approach
of an air raid. Ticonderoga 's gunners raced to their battle stations as the
raiders made both conventional and suicide attacks on the task group. Her
sister ship Essex (CV-9) erupted in flames when one of the kamikazes crashed
into her. When a second suicide plane tried to finish off the stricken
carrier, Ticonderoga 's gunners joined those firing from other ships in
cutting his approach abruptly short. That afternoon, while damage control
parties dressed Essex's wounds, Ticonderoga extended her hospitality to that
damaged carrier's homeless airmen as well as to Intrepid (CV-11) pilots in
similar straits. The following day, TF 38 retired to the east.
TF 38 stood out of Ulithi again on 11 December and headed for the Philippines
. Ticonderoga arrived at the launch point early in the afternoon of the 13th
and sent her planes aloft to blanket Japanese airbases on Luzon while Army
planes took care of those in the central Philippines . For three days,
Ticonderoga airmen and their comrades wreaked havoc with a storm of
destruction on enemy airfields. She withdrew on the 16th with the rest of TF
38 in search of a fueling rendezvous. While attempting to find calmer waters
in which to refuel, TF 38 steamed directly through a violent, but unheralded,
typhoon. Though the storm cost Admiral Halsey's force three destroyers and
over 800 lives, Ticonderoga and the other carriers managed to ride it out
with a minimum of damage. Having survived the tempest's fury, Ticonderoga
returned to Ulithi on Christmas Eve.
Repairs occasioned by the typhoon kept TF 38 in the anchorage almost until
the end of the month. The carriers did not return to sea until 30 December
1944 when they steamed north to hit Formosa and Luzon in preparation for the
landings on the latter island at Lingayen Gulf . Severe weather limited the
Formosa strikes on 3 and 4 January 1945 and, in all likelihood, obviated the
need for them. The warships fueled at sea on the 5th. Despite rough weather
on the 6th, the strikes on Luzon airfields were carried out. That day,
Ticonderoga 's airmen and their colleagues of the other air groups increased
their score by another 32 enemy planes. The 7th brought more strikes on Luzon
installations. After a fueling rendezvous on the 8th, Ticonderoga sped north
at night to get into position to blanket Japanese airfields in the Ryukyus
during the Lingayen assault the following morning. However, foul weather, the
bugaboo of TF 38 during the winter of 1944 and 1945, forced TG 38.3 to
abandon the strikes on the Ryukyu airfields and join TG 38.2 in pounding
Formosa.
During the night of 9 and 10 January, TF 38 steamed boldly through the Luzon
Strait and then headed generally southwest, diagonally across the South China
Sea . Ticonderoga provided combat air patrol coverage on -the llth and helped
to bring down four enemy planes which attempted to snoop the formation.
Otherwise, the carriers and their consorts proceeded unmolested to a point
some 150 to 200 miles off the coast of Indochina . There, on the 12th, they
launched their approximately 850 planes and made a series of anti-shipping
sweeps during which they sank a whopping 44 ships, totalling over 130,000
tons. After recovering planes in the late afternoon, the carriers moved off
to the northeast. Heavy weather hindered fueling operations on the 13th and
14th, and air searches failed to turn up any tempting targets. On the 15th,
fighters swept Japanese airfields on the Chinese coast while the flattops
headed for a position from which to strike Hong Kong . The following morning,
they launched antishipping bombing raids and fighter sweeps of air
installations. Weather prevented air operations on the 17th and again made
fueling difficult. It worsened the next day and stopped replenishment
operations altogether, so that they were not finally concluded until the
19th. The force then shaped a course generally northward to retransit Luzon
Strait via Balintang Channel.
The three task groups of TF 38 completed their transit during the night of 20
and 21 January. The next morning, their planes hit airfields on Formosa , in
the Pescadores , and at Sakishima Gunto. The good flying weather brought
mixed blessings. While it allowed American flight operations to continue
through the day, it also brought new gusts of the "Divine Wind."
Just after noon, a single-engined Japanese plane scored a hit on Langley with
a glide-bombing attack. Seconds later, a kamikaze swooped out of the clouds
and plunged toward Ticonderoga , He crashed through her flight deck abreast
of the No. 2 5-inch mount, and his bomb exploded just above her hangar deck.
Several planes stowed nearby erupted into flames. Death and destruction
abounded, but the ship's company fought valiantly to save the threatened
carrier. Capt. Kiefer conned his ship smartly. First, he changed course to
keep the wind from fanning the blaze. Then, he ordered magazines and other
compartments flooded to prevent further explosions and to correct a 10-degree
starboard list. Finally, he instructed the damage control party to continue
flooding compartments on Ticonderoga 's port side. That operation induced a
10-degree port list which neatly dumped the fire overboard! Firefighters and
plane handlers completed the job by dousing the flames and jettisoning
burning aircraft.
Wounded denizens of the deep often attract predators. Ticonderoga was no
exception. The other kamikazes pounced on her like a school of sharks in a
feeding frenzy. Her antiaircraft gunners struck back with desperate, but
methodical, ferocity and quickly swatted three of her tormentors into the
sea. A fourth plane slipped through her barrage and smashed into the
carrier's starboard side near the island. His bomb set more planes on fire,
riddled her flight deck, and injured or killed another 100 sailors-including
Capt. Kiefer. Yet, Ticonderoga 's crew refused to submit. Spared further
attacks, they brought her fires completely under control not long after 1400;
and Ticon deroga retired painfully.
The stricken carrier arrived at Ulithi on 24 January but remained there only
long enough to move her wounded to hospital ship Samaritan (AH-10), to
transfer her air group to Hancock (CV-19), and to embark passengers bound for
home. Ticonderoga cleared the lagoon on 28 January and headed for the United
States . The warship stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor en route to the Puget
Sound Navy Yard where she arrived on 15 February.
Her repairs were completed on 20 April, and she cleared Puget Sound the
following day for the Alameda Naval Air Station. After embarking passengers
and aircraft bound for Hawaii , the carrier headed for Pearl Harbor where she
arrived on 1 May. The next day, Air Group 87 came on board and, for the next
week, trained in preparation for the carrier's return to combat. Ticonderoga
stood out of Pearl Harbor and shaped a course for the western Pacific. En
route to Ulithi, she launched her planes for what amounted to training
strikes on Japanese-held Taroa in the Mar shalls . On 22 May, the warship
arrived in Ulithi and rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Force as an element of
Rear Admiral Radford's TG 58.4.
Two days after her arrival, Ticonderoga sortied from Ulithi with TF 58 and
headed north to spend the last weeks of the war in Japanese home waters.
Three days out, Admiral Halsey relieved Admiral Spruance, the 5th Fleet
reverted back to 3d Fleet, and TF 58 became TF 38 again for the duration. On
2 and 3 June, Ticonderoga fighters struck at airfields on Kyushu in an effort
to neutralize the remnants of Japanese air power-particularly the Kamikaze
Corps-and to relieve the pressure on American forces at Okinawa . During the
following two days, Ticonderoga rode out her second typhoon in less than six
months and emerged relatively unscathed. She provided combat air patrol cover
for the 6 June refueling rendezvous, and four of her fighters intercepted and
destroyed three Okinawa-bound kamikazes. That evening, she steamed off at
high speed with TG 38.4 to conduct a fighter sweep of airfields on southern
Kyushu on the 8th. Ticonderoga's planes then joined in the aerial bombardment
of Minami Daito Shima and Kita Daito Shima before the carrier headed for
Leyte where she arrived on the 13th.
During the two-week rest and replenishment period she enjoyed at Leyte,
Ticonderoga changed task organizations from TG 38.4 to Rear Admiral Gerald F.
Bogan's TG 38.3. On 1 July, she departed Leyte with TF 38 and headed north to
resume raids on Japan . Two days later, a damaged reduction gear forced her
into Apra Harbor, Guam , for repairs. She remained there until the 19th when
she steamed off to rejoin TF 38 and resume her role in the war against Japan
. On the 24th, her planes joined those of other fast carriers in striking
ships in the Inland Sea and airfields at Nagoya , Osaka , and Miko. During
those raids, TF 38 planes found the sad remnants of the once-mighty Japanese
Fleet and bagged battleships Ise, Hyuga, and Haruna as well as an escort
carrier, Kaiyo, and two heavy cruisers. On 28 July, her aircraft directed
their efforts toward the Kure Naval Base, where they pounded an aircraft
carrier, three cruisers, a destroyer, and a submarine. She shifted her
attention to the industrial area of central Honshu on the 30th, then to
northern Honshu and Hokkaido on 9 and 10 August. The latter attacks
thoroughly destroyed the marshalling area for a planned airborne suicide raid
on the B-29 bases in the Marianas . On the 13th and 14th, her planes returned
to the Tokyo area and helped to subject the Japanese capital to another
severe drubbing.
The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th,
respectively, convinced the Japanese of the futility of continued resistance.
On the morning of 15 August, Ticonderoga launched another strike against
Tokyo . During or just after that attack, word reached TF 38 to the effect
that Japan had capitulated.
The shock of peace, though not so abrupt as that of war almost four years
previously, took some getting used to. Ticonderoga and her sister ships
remained on a full war footing. She continued patrols over Japanese territory
and sent reconnaissance flights in search of camps containing Allied
prisoners of war so that airdropped supplies could be rushed to them. On 6 September-four
days after the formal surrender ceremony on board Missouri
(BB-63)-Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay.
Her arrival at Tokyo ended one phase of her career and began another. She
embarked homeward-bound passengers and put to sea again on the 20th. After a
stop in Pearl Harbor, the carrier reached Alameda , Calif. , on 5 October.
She disembarked her passengers and unloaded cargo before heading out on the
9th to pick up another group of veterans. Ticonderoga delivered over a
thousand soldiers and sailors to Tacoma , Wash. , and remained there through
the 28th for the Navy Day celebration. On 29 October, the carrier departed
Tacoma and headed back to Alameda . En route, all of the planes of Air Group
87 were transferred ashore so that the carrier could be altered to
accommodate additional passengers in the "Magic-Carpet" voyages to
follow. Following the completion of those modifications at the Pearl Harbor
Naval Shipyard in November, the warship headed for the Philippines and
arrived at Samar on 20 November. She returned to Alameda on 6 December and
debarked almost 4,000 returning servicemen. The carrier made one more
"Magic-Carpet" run in December 1945 and January 1946 before
entering the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to prepare for inactivation. Almost a
year later, on 9 January 1947, Ticonderoga was placed out of commission and
berthed with the Bremerton Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
On 31 January 1952, Ticonderoga came out of reserve and went into reduced
commission for the transit from Bremerton to New York . She departed Puget
Sound on 27 February and reached New York on 1 April. Three days later, she
was decommissioned at the New York Naval Shipyard to begin an extensive
conversion. During the ensuing 29 months, the carrier received the numerous
modifications-steam catapults to launch jets, a new nylon barricade, a new
deck-edge elevator and the latest electronic and fire control
equipment-necessary for her to become an integral unit of the fleet. On 11
September 1954, Ticonderoga was recommissioned at New York , Capt. William A.
Schoech in command.
In January 1955, the carrier shifted to her new home port- Norfolk , Va.
-where she arrived on the 6th. Over the next month, she conducted carrier
qualifications with Air Group 6 in the Virginia Capes operating area. On 3
February, she stood out of Hampton Roads for shakedown near Cuba , after
which she returned via Norfolk to New York for additional alterations. During
the late summer, the warship resumed carrier qualifications in the Virginia
capes area. After a visit to Philadelphia early in September, she
participated in tests of three new planes-the A4D-1 "Skyhawk," the
F4D-1 "Skyray," and the F3H-2N "Demon." Ticonderoga then
returned to normal operations along the east coast until 4 November when she
departed Mayport , Fla. , and headed for Europe . She relieved Intrepid at
Gibraltar 10 days later and cruised the length of the Mediterranean during
the following eight months. On 2 August 1956, Ticonderoga returned to Norfolk
and entered the shipyard to receive an angled flight deck and an enclosed
hurricane bow.
Those modifications were completed by early 1957; and, in April, she got
underway for her new home port- Alameda , Calif. She reached her destination
on 30 May, underwent repairs, and finished out the summer with operations off
the California coast. On 16 September, she stood out of San Francisco Bay and
shaped d course for the Far East . En route, she stopped at Pearl Harbor
before continuing west to Yokosuka , Japan , where she arrived on 15 October.
For six months, Ticonderoga cruised Oriental waters from Japan in the north
to the Philippines in the south. Upon arriving at Alameda on 25 April 1958,
she completed her first deployment to the western Pacific since
recoinmissioning.
Between 1958 and 1963, Ticonderoga made four more peacetime deployments to
the western Pacific. During each, she conducted training operations with
other urfits of the 7th Fleet and made goodwill and liberty port calls
throughout the Far East . Early in 1964, she began preparations for her sixth
cruise to the western Pacific and, following exercises off the west coast and
in the Hawaiian Islands, the carrier cleared Pearl Harbor on 4 May for what
began as another peaceful tour of duty in the Far East . The first three
months of that deployment brought normal operations-training and port calls.
However, on 2 August, while operating in international waters in the Gulf of
Tonkin , Maddox (DD-731) reported being attacked by units of the North
Vietnamese Navy. Within minutes of her receipt of the message, Ticonderoga
dispatched four, rocket-armed F8E "Crusaders" to the destroyer's
assistance. Upon arrival, the "Crusaders" launched Zuni rockets and
strafed the North Vietnamese craft with their 20-millimeter cannons. The Ticonderoga
airmen teamed up with Maddox gunners to thwart the North Vietnamese attack,
leaving one boat dead in the water and damaging the other two.
Two days later, late in the evening of the 4th, Ticonderoga received urgent
requests from Turner Joy (DD-951)-by then on patrol with Maddox-for air
support in resisting what the destroyer alleged to be another torpedo boat
foray. The carrier again launched planes to aid the American surface ships,
and Turner Joy directed them. The Navy surface and air team believed it had
sunk two boats and damaged another pair. President Johnson responded with a
reprisal to what he felt at the time to be two unprovoked attacks on American
seapower and ordered retaliatory air strikes on selected North Vietnamese
motor torpedo boat bases. On 5 August, Ticonderoga and Constellation (CV-46)
launched 60 sorties against four bases and their supporting oil storage
facilities. Those attacks reportedly resulted in the destruction of 25
PT-type boats, severe damage to the bases, and almost complete razing of the
oil storage depot. For her quick reaction and successful combat actions on
those three occasions, Ticonderoga received the Navy Unit Commendation.
After a return visit to Japan in September, the aircraft carrier resumed
normal operations in the South China Sea until winding up the deployment late
in the year. She returned to the Naval Air Station, North Island , Calif. ,
on 15 December 1964. Following post-deployment and holiday standdown,
Ticonderoga moved to the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard on 27 January 1965 to
begin a five-month overhaul. She completed repairs in June and spent the
summer operating along the coast of southern California . On 28 September,
the aircraft carrier put to sea for another deployment to the Orient. She spent
some time in the Hawaiian Islands for an operational readiness exercise then
continued on to the Far East . She reached "Dixie Station" on 5
November and immediately began combat air operations.
Ticonderoga 's winter deployment of 1965 and 1966 was her first total combat
tour of duty during American involvement in the Vietnam War. During her six
months in the Far East, the carrier spent a total of 115 days in air
operations off the coast of Vietnam , dividing her time almost evenly between
"Dixie" and "Yankee Stations," the carrier operating
areas off South and North Vietnam , respectively. Her air group delivered
over 8,000 tons of ordnance in more than 10,000 combat sorties, with a loss
of 16 planes, but only 5 pilots. For the most part, her aircraft hit enemy
installations in North Vietnam and interdicted supply routes into South
Vietnam , including river-borne and coastwise junk and sampan traffic as well
as roads, bridges, and trucks on land. Specifically, they claimed the
destruction of 35 bridges as well as numerous warehouses, barracks, trucks,
boats, and railroad cars and severe damage to a major North Vietnamese
thermal power plant located at Uong Bi north of Haiphong . After a stop at
Sasebo , Japan , from 25 April to 3 May 1966, the warship put to sea to
return to the United States . On 13 May, she pulled into port at San Diego to
end the deployment.
Following repairs she stood out of San Diego on 9 July to begin a normal
round of west coast training operations. Those and similar evolutions continued
until 15 October, when Ticonderoga departed San Diego , bound via Hawaii for
the western Pacific. The carrier reached Yokosuka, Japan, on 30 October and
remained there until 5 November when she headed south for an overnight stop
at Subic Bay in the Philippines on the 10th and llth. On the 13th,
Ticonderoga arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin and began the first of three combat
tours during her 1966-67 deployment. She launched 11,650 combat sorties, all
against enemy targets located in North Vietnam . Again, her primary targets
were logistics and communications lines and transportation facilities. For
their overall efforts in the conduct of day and night strikes on enemy
targets, Ticonderoga and her air group earned their second Navy Unit
Commendation. She completed her final line period on 27 April 1967 and
returned to Yokosuka , from which she departed again on 19 May to return to
the United States . Ten days later, the carrier entered San Diego and began a
month-long, post-deployment standdown. At the beginning of July, the warship
shifted to Bremerton , Wash. , where she entered the Puget Sound Naval
Shipyard for two months of repairs. Upon the completion of yard work, she
departed Bremerton on 6 September and steamed south to training operations
off the coast of southern California.
On 28 December, Ticonderoga sailed for her fourth combat deployment to the
waters off the Indochinese coast. She made Yokosuka on 17 January 1968 and,
after two days of upkeep, continued on to the Gulf of Tonkin where she arrived
on station on the 26th and began combat operations. Between January and July,
Ticonderoga was on the line off the coast of Vietnam for five separate
periods totalling 120 days of combat duty. During that time, her air wing
flew just over 13,000 combat sorties against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
forces, most frequently in the continuing attempts to interdict the enemy
lines of supply. In mid-April, following her second line period, she made a
port visit to Singapore and then, after upkeep at Subic Bay, returned to duty
off Vietnam . On 9 July, during her fifth and final line period, Lt. Comdr.
J. B. Nichols claimed Ticonderoga 's first MiG kill. The carrier completed
that line period and entered Subic Bay for upkeep on 25 July.
On the 27th, she headed north to Yokosuka where she spent a week for upkeep
and briefings before heading back to the United States on 7 August.
Ticonderoga reached San Diego on the 17th and disembarked her air group. On
the 22d, she entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for post-deployment
repairs. She completed those repairs on 21 October, conducted sea trials on
the 28th and 29th, and began normal operations out of San Diego early in
November. For the remainder of the year, she conducted refresher training and
carrier qualifications along the coast of southern California.
During the first month of 1969, Ticonderoga made preparations for her fifth
consecutive combat deployment to the southeast Asia area. On 1 February, she
cleared San Diego and headed west. After a brief stop at Pearl Harbor a week
later, she continued her voyage to Yokosuka where she arrived on the 20th.
The carrier departed Yokosuka on the 28th for the coast of Vietnam where she
arrived on 4 March. Over the next four months, Ticonderoga served four
periods on the line off Vietnam , interdicting communist supply lines and
making strikes against their positions.
During her second line period, however, her tour of duty off Vietnam came to
an abrupt end on 16 April when she was shifted north to the Sea of Japan .
North Korean aircraft had shot down a Navy reconnaissance plane in the area,
and Ticonderoga was called upon to beef up the forces assigned to the
vicinity. However, the crisis abated; and Ticonderoga entered Subic Bay on 27
April for upkeep. On 8 May, she departed the Philippines to return to
"Yankee Station" and resumed interdiction operations. Between her
third and fourth line periods, the carrier visited Sasebo and Hong Kong.
The aircraft carrier took station off Vietnam for her last line period of the
deployment on 26 June and there followed 37 more days of highly successful
air sorties against enemy targets. Following that tour, she joined TF 71 in
the Sea of Japan for the remainder of the deployment. Ticonderoga concluded
the deployment-a highly successful one for she received her third Navy Unit
Commendation for her operations during that tour of duty-when she left Subic
Bay on 4 September.
Ticonderoga arrived in San Diego on 18 September. After almost a month of
post-deployment standdown, she moved to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in
mid-October to begin conversion to an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft
carrier. Overhaul and conversion work began on 20 October, and Ticonderoga
was re-designated CVS-14 on the 21st. She completed overhaul and conversion
on 28 May 1970 and conducted exercises out of Long Beach for most of June. On
the 26th, the new ASW support carrier entered her new home port, San Diego .
During July and August, she conducted refresher training, refresher air
operations, and carrier landing qualifications. The warship operated off the
Califonia coast for the remainder of the year and participated in two
exercises-HUKASWEX 4-70 late in October and COMPUTEX 23-70 between 30
November and 3 December.
During the remainder of her active career, Ticonderoga made two more
deployments to the Far East . Because of her change in mission, neither tour
of duty included combat operations off Vietnam . Both, however, included
training exercises in the Sea of Japan with ships of the Japanese Maritime
Self Defense Force. The first of these two cruises also brought operations in
the Indian Ocean with units of the Thai Navy and a transit of Sunda Strait
during which a ceremony was held to commemorate the loss of Houston (CA-30)
and HMAS Perth in 1942.
In between these two last deployments, she operated in the eastern Pacific
and participated in the recovery of the Apollo 16 moon mission capsule and
astronauts near American Samoa during April of 1972. The second deployment
came in the summer of 1972; and, in addition to the training exercises in the
Sea of Japan, Ticonderoga also joined ASW training operations in the South
China Sea . That fall, she returned to the eastern Pacific and, in November,
practiced for the recovery of Apollo 17. The next month, Ticonderoga
recovered her second set of space voyagers near American Samoa . The carrier
then headed back to San Diego where she arrived on 28 December.
Ticonderoga remained active for nine more months, first operating out of San
Diego and then making preparations for inactivation. On 1 September 1973, the
aircraft carrier was decommissioned after a board of inspection and survey
found her to be unfit for further naval service. Her name was struck from the
Navy list on 16 November 1973, and arrangements were begun to sell her for
scrap.
Ticonderoga received five battle stars during World War II and three Navy
Unit Commendations, one Meritorious Unit Commendation, and 12 battle stars
during the Vietnam War.
source: US Naval History & Heritage Command
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